Medieval Hunting

by Richard Almond

  5. A.C. Spearing, The Gawain Poet: A Critical Study (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 9–10.

  6. MG, 1904, p. 69.

  7. MG, 1909, p. 176.

  8. H & H, pp. 185 and 217.

  9. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, The Art of Falconry, trans. and ed. Casey A. Wood and F. Marjorie Fyfe (Stanford, 1943, repr. 1955), pp. 152–3.

  10. Ibid., p. xli.

  11. Ibid., p. xlii; also see H & H, p. 219.

  12. H & H, p. 217.

  13. H.W.C. Davis (ed.), Mediaeval England (Oxford, 1924), p. 338.

  14. Phillip Glasier, As the Falcon her Bells (London, 1963), p. 217; also see H & H, pp. 193 and 194.

  15. H & H, Appendix V, pp. 269–70.

  16. Ibid., p. 174.

  17. MG, 1904, pp. 161–2.

  18. Pisanello, p. 83.

  19. H & H, pp. 218–19.

  20. Ibid., p. 173.

  21. Pisanello, p. 163.

  22. William Twiti, The Art of Hunting, 1327, ed. Bror Danielsson (Stockholm, 1977), pp. 33–4.

  23. H & H, p. 185.

  24. Ibid., p. 270.

  25. Ibid., p. 185.

  26. MG, 1904, p. 102.

  27. Gervaise, Rosser, ‘Going to the Fraternity Feast: Commensuality and Social Relations in Late Medieval England’, Journal of British Studies, 33, 1994.

  28. A.J. Pollard, ‘Fellowship and Fraternity in the Early Stories of Robin Hood’. Seminar delivered to the Late Medieval Political Group, York Seminars, at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, 3 December 2001. These ideas will be more fully set forward in Professor Pollard’s forthcoming study of the Robin Hood stories, to be published by Routledge.

  29. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, p. 235.

  30. Ibid., pp. 20–1.

  31. Scotto Sisters [text by Annie Hubert-Bare], The Heritage of French Cooking (London, 1991, edn 1993), p. 19.

  32. H & H, p. 218.

  33. Chantilly, Musée Condé, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berri, MS 65, Calendar for August, fol. 8v.

  34. H & H, p. 172.

  35. Maurice Keen, The Outlaws of Medieval Legend (London, 1977), p. 166.

  36. Ibid., p. 2.

  37. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, p. 169.

  38. Birrell, p. 85.

  39. Ibid., p. 68.

  40. Ibid., p. 69.

  41. Ibid., p. 74.

  42. Ibid., p. 75; H & H, p. 53. In practice, a longbow arrow or crossbow bolt would rarely kill a deer or other large beast outright. Such projectiles cause massive damage and bleeding which slows and eventually brings down the quarry, which is why a steady, trained dog was essential to legitimate hunters and poachers alike.

  43. Ibid., pp. 71–5.

  44. Ibid., p. 86.

  45. Ibid., p. 88.

  46. Ibid., p. 87.

  47. Marcelle Thiébaux, The Stag of Love (Ithaca and London, 1974), p. 22.

  48. John Spiers, Medieval English Poetry, The Non-Chaucerian Tradition (London, 1957), p. 290.

  49. PTA, p. 1, Prologue, ll. 3–5.

  50. Ibid., p. 1, Prologue, l. 22.

  51. Ibid., p. 2, Prologue, ll. 40–4.

  52. Ibid., p. 2, Prologue, ll. 47–50.

  53. Ibid., p. 3, Prologue, ll. 66–89.

  54. PTA, p. 3, Prologue, l. 80.

  55. Barcelets: see Anne Rooney (ed.), The Tretyse off Huntyng, Scripta 19, Mediaeval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Brussels, 1987), pp. 51–2, ll. 145–9, and p. 78. Forest records, see Birrell, p. 76.

  56. PTA, p. 4, Prologue, ll. 92–6.

  57. John Bellamy, Crime and Public Order in England in the Later Middle Ages (London and Toronto, 1973), p. 75.

  58. John M. Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland (Edinburgh, 1979), p. 57.

  59. Birrell, p. 88.

  60. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford (ed.), The Stonor Letters and Papers 1290–1483, Camden Society, 3rd series, Vol. XXIX, Vol. 1 (London, 1919), p. xxx.

  61. Ibid., Vol. XXX, Vol. II, pp. 150–51 319.

  62. Ibid., Vol. XXIX, Vol. 1 (London, 1919), p. xxx.

  63. Charles R. Young, The Royal Forests of Medieval England (Leicester, 1979), p. 106.

  64. Ralph Whitlock, Historic Forests of England (Bradford-on-Avon, 1979), p. 23.

  65. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, pp. 36–7 and 41.

  66. Ibid., p. 35.

  67. Ibid., p. 235.

  68. MG, 1904, pp. 203 and 204.

  69. H & H, p. 61.

  70. Maurice Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages 1348–1500 (London, 1990), p. 14.

  71. S.J.A. Evans, Ely Chapter Ordinances and Visitation Record: 1241–1515; Ordinances of the Prior and Chapter 1314, Camden Miscellany, 1940, p. 42:

  Item ordinatum est quod nullus fratrum leporarios uel aues rapaces, infra scepta monasterii vel alibi in villa, absque licencia prioris optenta per se teneat, per aliumve aut presumat retinere; et hoc idem de quocumque infra curiam monasterii quoquomodo famulante statutum est obseruari.

  72. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, ed. Stephen Coote (Harmondsworth, 1985; repr. 1986), p. 66, ll. 165–8.

  73. Ibid., p. 66, ll. 172–6.

  74. Ibid., p. 68, ll. 177–87.

  75. Ibid., p. 68, ll. 188–91.

  76. Young, Royal Forests of Medieval England, pp. 166–7.

  77. R. Trevor Davies, Documents Illustrating the History of Civilisation in Medieval England (1066–1500) (London, 1926; repr. 1969), p. 147.

  78. Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland, p. 142.

  79. Ibid., p. 99.

  80. Mark Bailey, A Marginal Economy? East Anglian Breckland in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), p. 184.

  81. Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland, p. 213.

  82. Bailey, A Marginal Economy?, pp. 185–6.

  83. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, p. 163.

  84. Birrell, p. 87.

  85. Bellamy, Crime and Public Order in England, p. 78.

  86. Ibid., p. 80.

  87. Ibid., p. 72.

  88. Ibid., pp. 80 and 72.

  89. Ibid., p. 72.

  90. Ibid., p. 80.

  91. Ibid., pp. 80–1.

  92. MG, 1904, p. 204.

  93. John of Salisbury, Policraticus, Bk I, ed. Joseph B. Pike (London, 1938), p. 22.

  94. MG, 1904, pp. 138 and 203.

  95. Davies, Documents Illustrating the History of Civilisation in Medieval England (1066–1500), p. 26.

  96. MG, 1904, p. 138.

  97. Harry Rothwell (ed.), English Historical Documents 1189–1327 (London, 1975), pp. 321 48.

  98. MG, 1904, pp. 203–4.

  99. Ibid., pp. 138 and 204.

  100. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, p. 57.

  101. The author is grateful to Professor Anthony J. Pollard for access to, and use of, his unpublished conference paper ‘The 1390 Game Law’.

  102. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, pp.63–4.

  103. Ibid., pp. 57–8.

  104. Ibid., p. 64.

  105. Ibid., p. 58.

  106. Pisanello, p. 80.

  107. Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, 16th Century Paintings (Cologne, 2001), pp. 81–2.

  Chapter Six

  1. P.J.P. Goldberg, ‘Women in fifteenth century town life’, in J.A.F. Thomson (ed.), Towns and Townspeople in the Fifteenth Century (Gloucester, 1988).

  2. Compton Reeves, ‘The Sumptuary Statute of 1363: A look at the aims and effectiveness of English legislation on diet and clothing’, Medieval Life, Issue 16, Winter 2001/2 (Gilling East, York), p. 17.

  3. H & H, p. 8.

  4. Veronica Sekules, ‘Women and Art in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’, J. Alexander and Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry (London, 1987), p. 47.

  5. Sir George Warner, Queen Mary’s Psalter (London, 1912), p. 39, plate 216a, fol. 197.

  6. François R. Velde, ‘Women Knights in the Middle Ages’, http://128.220.1.164/heraldry/topics/orders//wom
-kn.htm

  7. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264, fol. 81v.

  8. Christa Grössinger, The World Upside-Down, English Misericords (London, 1997), pp. 85 and 93.

  9. H & H, pp. 116–17.

  10. For discussions on history and beliefs of hare gender, see MG, 1909, pp. 219–20, and H & H, pp. 110–11.

  11. Reader’s Digest Universal Dictionary (London, 1987), p. 1250.

  12. H & H, p. 117.

  13. Linda Colley, Britons, Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (New Haven and London, 1992), p. 172.

  14. London, British Library, Add. MS 16, fol. 165.

  15. H & H, p. 249; MG, 1909, p. 200.

  16. Nicholas Orme, From Childhood to Chivalry (London, 1984), p. 195.

  17. BSA, facsimile edn, pp. 11, 14 and 7. Rachel Hands has cast doubt on the authenticity of Juliana’s authorship. See ‘Juliana Berners and The Boke of St. Albans’, Review of English Studies 18 (1967), pp. 373–86.

  18. BSA, facsimile edn, p. 7.

  19. Ibid., p. 24.

  20. Maurice Keen, English Society in the Later Middle Ages 1348–1500 (London, 1990), p. 185.

  21. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, trans. Nevill Coghill (London, 1951; repr. 1977), p. 64 ff.

  22. Catherine Lafarge, ‘The hand of the huntress: repetition and Malory’s Morte Darthur’, in Isobel Armstrong (ed.), New Feminist Discourses (London, 1995), p. 263.

  23. Dalby, p. xix.

  24. Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside (London, 1986, repr. 1993), p. 125.

  25. H & H, p. 7.

  26. Pisanello, p. 83.

  27. Dr Franz Neiderwolfsgruber (text), Kaiser Maximilians I. Jagd und Fischereibücher (Innsbruck, 1965, edn. 1992), plate opp. p. 8.

  28. Ann Claxton, ‘The Sign of the Dog, an Examination of the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries’, Journal of Medieval History, 14 (1988), pp. 127–79.

  29. H & H, p. 7.

  30. Paris, Musée de Louvre, Les Chasses de Maximilien, tapestries for April and September.

  31. W.A. Baillie-Grohman, Sport in Art (London, 1913; reissued London and New York, 1969), pp. 163–4 and fig. 104, p. 167.

  32. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, The Hours of Marguerite D’Orléans, MS Lat. 1156B, ‘The Trinity’, fol. 163.

  33. H & H, p. 180.

  34. Roger B. Manning, Hunters and Poachers (Oxford, 1993), p. 40.

  35. Ibid., p. 27.

  36. H.L. Blackmore, Hunting Weapons (New York, 1972), p. 59.

  37. H & H, p. 81; see also R.E. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources (Oxford, 1965; repr. 1989), pp. 506–7.

  38. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tapestry 4, The Deer Hunt.

  39. H & H, p. 8.

  40. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Les Chasses de Maximilien, tapestry for May.

  41. Sekules, ‘Women and Art in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’, p. 47.

  42. Glasgow, Burrell Collection, tapestry The Pursuit of Fidelity.

  43. H & H, p. 79.

  44. Ibid., pp. 80–1.

  45. Anne Payne, Medieval Beasts (London, 1990), p. 27; London, British Library, Queen Mary’s Psalter, MS Royal 2 B.VII, fol. 100v.

  46. H & H, p. 154.

  47. Ibid., p. 153.

  48. London, British Library, MS Royal 12 F. xiii, fol. 10v. Unusually, the virgin is naked.

  49. New York, Cloisters Museum, The Unicorn Tapestries, 5, 6 and 7.

  50. Cambridge, Trinity College, Wren Library, R. 14. 9. fol. 90v.

  51. Anne Payne, Medieval Beasts, p. 27.

  52. John M. Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland (Edinburgh, 1979), p. 52.

  53. MG, 1909, p. 260.

  54. Manning, Hunters and Poachers, plate 4, p. 148.

  55. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, The Stag Hunt Given by the Elector John Frederick of Saxony for Emperor Charles V at the Castle of Torgau.

  56. Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, 16th Century Paintings, p. 81.

  57. Ibid., p. 86.

  58. R.W. Seton-Watson, Maximilian I (London, 1902), p. 14.

  59. Jacques de Brézé, La Chasse, ed. Gunnar Tilander, Cynegetica VI (Lund 1959), pp. 36, 39, 43 and 45.

  60. Eileen Power, Medieval Women (Cambridge, 1975; repr. 1997), pp. 68–9.

  61. Ibid., p. 70; notes p. 95.

  62. Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS XVI B, fol. 1v.

  63. London, British Library, Queen Mary’s Psalter, Royal MS 2 B. VII, fols 151, 177v and 178.

  64. The archaic term ‘gobbet’ has recently been adopted by the IT profession to mean a small piece of electronic text.

  65. London, British Library, The Taymouth Hours, MS Yates Thompson 13, fols 72v–75v.

  66. Francisco Sauer and Joseph Stummvoll (eds), Tacuinum Sanitatis in Medicina. Codices Selecti, Vol. VI–VI*, English transcription by Heide Saxer and Charles H. Talbot (Graz, 1967), fol. 67v.

  67. J.J.G. Alexander [text], The Master of Mary of Burgundy. A Book of Hours for Engelbert of Nassau (New York, 1970), pp. 41–58; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 219–20, fols 47–68v.

  68. Paris, Archives Nationale.

  69. Warner (ed.), Queen Mary’s Psalter, pp. 1 and 4.

  70. Ibid., p. 8.

  71. London, British Library, Queen Mary’s Psalter, Royal MS 2 B. VII, fols 152 and 153; fols 155v and 156.

  72. Mark Bailey, A Marginal Economy? East Anglian Breckland in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 129 and 131.

  73. H.Y. Thompson, Illustrations from One Hundred Manuscripts in the Library of Henry Yates Thompson, Vol. 4 (London, 1914), p. 31.

  74. Lucy Freeman Sandler, Gothic Manuscripts 1285–1385 (London, 1986), pp. 107–9.

  75. Thompson, Illustrations from One Hundred Manuscripts, p. 31.

  76. London, British Library, The Taymouth Hours, MS Yates Thompson 13, fols 68–83v.

  77. Pisanello, p. 80.

  78. Ldc, Tilander, p. 269, fol. 20, ll. 2–4.

  79. H & H, p. 31.

  80. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-List, p. 273.

  81. Nancy Mitford, The Sun King (London, 1966), p. 50.

  82. Andrew Wheatcroft, The Habsburgs (London, 1995; repr. 1996), p. 275.

  83. The Field, March 1996, p. 114.

  84. Glasgow, Burrell Collection, Burgundian Tapestry, Peasants Ferreting.

  85. Birrell, p. 79.

  86. Ibid., p. 85.

  Chapter Seven

  1. Birrell, p. 76.

  2. The author is grateful to Professor Anthony J. Pollard for access to, and use of, his unpublished conference paper ‘The 1390 Game Law’.

  3. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, The Hours of Marguerite D’Orléans, MS Lat. 1156B, ‘The Trinity’, fol. 163.

  4. London, British Library, MS Egerton 1146, Calendar for June, fol. 7v.

  5. Ernest Hemingway, True at First Light (London, 1999), p. 156.

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